The four cell types of gut epithelium, enteroendocrine cells, enterocytes, Paneth cells and goblet cells, arise from a common totipotent stem cell located in the mid portion of the intestinal gland. The secretin-producing (S) cell is one of at least ten cell types belonging to the diffuse neuroendocrine system of the gut. We have examined the developmental relationship between secretin cells an...

BACKGROUND Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is associated with severe diseases in immunosuppressed patients; however, there is a lack of data for pre-emptive therapy in patients with HIV/AIDS. METHOD This was a retrospective study, which enrolled patients diagnosed with HIV/AIDS (CD4<200 cells/μl), who had detectable CMV viral load (VL) during their stay in an adult medical intensive care unit...

Pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-based cell therapy is an attractive concept for neurodegenerative diseases, but can lead to tumor formation. This is particularly relevant as proliferating neural precursors rather than postmitotic mature neurons need to be transplanted. Thus, safety mechanisms to eliminate proliferating cells are needed. Here, we propose a suicide gene approach, based on cell cycle-...

In our previous study, we successfully treated an established C6 brain tumor using neural stem cells transduced with the herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase gene (HSVtk) and ganciclovir in the rat. In the present study, we investigated the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), obtained from adult rats and transduced with HSVtk (MSCtk cells), instead of neural stem cells because MSCs are much ...

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection after lung transplantation is associated with increased risk for pneumonitis and bronchiolitis obliterans as well as allograft rejection and opportunistic infections. Ganciclovir is the mainstay of prophylaxis and treatment but CMV infections can be unresponsive. Apart from direct antiviral drugs, CMV immunoglobulin (CMVIG) preparations may be considered but are ...